Experts have spotted a pair of black holes about to collide.
Thanks to technological advances, astronomers have been able to see space in greater detail than ever before, and have witnessed the merger of two supermassive black holes. Incidentally, this is the first time such large objects have been seen in the merger of dwarf galaxies, according to The Verge. Indy100 From his report.
the Astrophysical Journal According to a detailed study in the journal, the event occurred in two dwarf galaxies, located 760 million and 3.2 billion light-years away from us. The event was captured by NASA's Chandra Space Telescope, and revealed another unprecedented phenomenon: experts determined that both galaxies contain two supermassive black holes at their centers.
First observed example of black hole merger
Computer simulation of what would happen if two black holes merged. Illustration: SXS lens
Astronomers discovered this when they observed X-rays emitted from their accretion disks, the super-hot plasma around the unseen monsters.
Chandra's special instruments detected and recorded this phenomenon, giving scientists insight into how large galaxies like our own Milky Way formed. Experts theorize that dwarf galaxies are the starting point for larger galaxies, from which galaxies like our own form over billions of years, as they continually merge.
“Most dwarf galaxies and black holes in the early universe probably grew much larger due to repeated mergers,” explained study co-author Brenna Wells. “In a sense, dwarf galaxies are the ancestors of our extended home, evolving over billions of years to eventually form a galaxy like our own.”
Worth reading:
